Eliza

My great, great grandmother and I share at least one trait in common.  Writing.  She was a journaler.  Her name was Eliza (Edworthy) Ward. Her journal notes begin in 1887 and go through 1890 with occasional notes outside those dates.  According to her journal, she traveled to the United States to join her future husband Thomas Ward "just as was promised" (Thomas had arrived the year before her, after a nine week voyage").  She arrived on the 5th of October 1854, and married him 9 days later.  I wonder how she felt as she boarded the ship that would take her to her love.  Frightened?  Would she ever return home to see her parents or siblings?  Facing a voyage of several weeks...alone?  I know her family did not travel with her.  What courage she must have had!

Thomas and Eliza Ward stayed in New York for 14 years and  left for Illinois in 1867.  They first resided in Ottawa, LaSalle Co. IL, and then "came on the prairie in 1869".  They purchased and sold 2 different farms before they bought "the Greenleaf farm" in the fall of 1876.  Eliza's journal tells the tale of what life was like there.  

Her diary lists daily tasks...some daunting by today's standards. 

1887  "We baked 9 pies and 2 cakes and 33 tarts and done a 'hole' host besides" 

1888  "I paid all 15 dollars for organ"

1895  "put up windmill"

        "lost chicks- 4 - cat ate them"

        "thrashed 22 hundred and 65 bushels of oats"

        "shelled 18 bushels of corn"

There are so many more!!  Remind me not to complain about how much work I do in a day!  Day after day she worked like that!  She did have hired help...can that be my excuse?  My life is nothing like Elliza's.  I find it interesting that little is said about Eliza's own family back in England.  She does mention a few...a niece, and a nephew.  But no parents, nor siblings.  I could not go across the ocean, and never think of the family I have left behind.  What kind of life did Eliza so easily leave behind?  

The lengthy entries end in with a single line "April 29, 1890 Bessie died".  Oh...be still my heart!  The grief of loosing her daughter must have been crushing!  She writes the lyrics to "The Christian's Song" at the end.  I imagine that the final verse brought her comfort:

When the seals are all open the trumpet shall sound,
And awake God's dear children that sleep under ground,
Their souls and their bodies shall all join in one,
And each from their Savior receive a bright crown.